(Sipho Mpongo: “Born Frees”, Port St Johns -
2014)
The KZNSA Gallery
in Glenwood, Durban is once again the Short Films Hub for the 37th Durban
International Film Festival (DIFF). In addition, the gallery will be home to
opening night film The Journeymen’s
accompanying photographic exhibition entitled Twenty Journey from June 18 to 24.
Twenty Journey conveys the photographic journey of three
South African photographers, the protagonists in the film The Journeymen - Sipho Mpongo, Wikus de Wet and Sean Metelerkamp.
The trio travelled some 24,000 km around South Africa for over seven months,
speaking to a fascinating array of different people that they came across,
capturing images that represented those particular individuals and places.
Collectively, these images tell a South African story in a captivating
pictorial ensemble, shining a light on the intimate and interwoven nature of
the people that make up a nation striving for identity and authentic
restoration.
“In their
documentary, the frame is no longer still and installed in white gallery walls.
The frame is moving through the mundane, the exciting, the discovered, the
racial, the gendered, the rich, the poor, the educated, the illiterate, the
intersections and the Journeymen,”
says Khanyisile Mbongwa, curator of the Twenty
Journey exhibition. “It is a project that, in its conception, questions the
very existence of the horizon, set up within the context of a collapsing
rainbow nation. It tasked itself to ask democracy questions about “Born-Frees”,
“Land” and “Idiosyncrasies”.
Mbongwa is a Cape
Town based award-winning curator and performative installation artist. She is
the co-founding member of Gugulective, robust and innovative arts collective
and co-founder of VASIKI Creative Citizens. Her work has been seen across South
Africa, Germany, Spain, Sri Lanka, Scotland and New York among others.
The KZNSA Gallery
in 166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood, will be the hub for the exhibition and short
films that are part of DIFF. The gallery is open Tuesday to Friday 09h00 to
17h00, Saturday 09h00 to 16h00 and Sundays 10h00 to 15h00. Screenings of the
short films are at 18h00 and 20h00.
For films in the
shorts line-up see the DIFF programme booklet available at the DIFF venues, or
the website. www.durbanfilmfest.co.za.
The Durban
International Film Festival takes place from June 16 to 26. The Festival
includes nearly 200 theatrical screenings, as well as the Wavescape Film
Festival and various industry initiatives, including the 9th Talents Durban
programme (in cooperation with the Berlin Talent Campus) and the 7th Durban
FilmMart co-production market (in partnership with the Durban Film Office).
The 37th Durban International Film Festival
is organised by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of
KwaZulu-Natal, with support from the National Film and Video Foundation, Durban
Film Office, eThekwini Municipality, German Embassy, Goethe Institut,
KwaZulu-Natal Department of Arts and Culture and a range of other valued
partners.
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